John

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

John

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  3w, 1m

Annie Baker

"Annie Baker’s John is so good on so many levels that it casts a unique and brilliant light." - The New Yorker

John

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 1m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Not Applicable
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

The week after Thanksgiving. A Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A cheerful innkeeper. A young couple struggling to stay together. Thousands of inanimate objects, watching. 

A simple enough description, but Annie Baker’s fascinating play takes a look at what theatre can be and builds a world all its own. Baker's hyper-realism bleeds into the eerily super-natural in this quiet tale, where actors and audiences alike delve into ideas of self, mortality, and the solitude of human experience.

History

John premiered at the Signature Theatre in New York City in August of 2015 under the direction of Sam Gold.

Keywords
Performing Groups
ELIAS SCHREIBER-HOFFMAN - 29, glasses
JENNY CHUNG - 31, no glasses
MERTIS KATHERINE GRAVEN - 72, no glasses
GENEVIEVE MARDUK - 85, blind
  • Time Period Contemporary, Present Day
  • Setting The first floor of a Bed & Breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the very end of November.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes / Street Clothes
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Media

REVIEWS 

"Annie Baker’s John is so good on so many levels that it casts a unique and brilliant light." - The New Yorker, Read More 

"Ms. Baker...stretches her talents in intriguing if sometimes baffling new directions." The New York Times, Read More 

"Baker is trying to extend to characters in extremis the intense realism — not stage realism but real realism — usually denied them in plays." - Vulture, Read More 

"When it comes to playwriting, [Baker] is astonishingly clear-eyed. In John, her new play at the Signature Theatre, one character is blind and another wears glasses with a very strong prescription, but they both benefit from Baker’s excellent vision." The Guardian, Read More 

"Baker knows exactly what she’s doing — she gives us just enough to open up possibilities. What a thrill!" - New York Post, Read More 

"Baker does not merely tell a scary story. She shows them, piling up like ghosts of amputated limbs from the war wounded, and makes them riveting, unpredictable, altogether human theater." - Newsday, Read More

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.
    Performance rights for this title are currently withdrawn in the UK. To be informed as soon as it becomes available in the future, please submit a license application.

Scripts

Available Formats:
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Authors

Annie Baker

Annie Baker
Annie Baker's full-length plays include The Flick (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Playwriting, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize), Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Aliens (Ratt ...
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